It's the little things

I love flowers in the bud stage when they are just on the verge of bursting out. This lilac cluster will be a good 8 to 10 inches long when it is in full flower but there's something about it at this stage. All those little buds look like a little package waiting to be opened.

Passion for Paris

I think if a person has ever been to Paris, the memory always stays. Other grand cities come and go but Paris is forever.
I have a lot of memories of my visit to Paris in the spring of 2002 that swirl all around in my brain but this is the one I remember vividly: We were up in the Eiffel Tower as the sun was getting low and the city was bathed in the most wonderful golden light. As it started to get darker, one by one, the lights of Paris started to come up and for just a short time the fading sunlight and the twinkling lights competed with each other. It was a moment, let me tell you.

From last year's garden

I was poking around in my garden the other day and lamenting that I had not done much clean up last autumn. But then I found a few of these little treasures: the skeletonized remnants of some tomatillos. Cool, huh?

And then there was the issue of the carpet

Okay, I promise to get off this but I had to post photos of the carpet. A little back story first: the entire week we were attending the aforementioned meeting, men were working inside this um, lodge, replacing carpet. Apparently there was a small fire inside last November and the sprinkler system activated and soaked everything leaving the 37 year old carpet (yes, it had never been replaced) to molder away all winter. I could take this opportunity to launch into an entire separate post about the air quality inside the bunker they held our meeting in but I digress.
The polka dot carpet was from the ladies' room and this other, what's the word?, patterned carpet is what they laid inside the entire building. I was just a little amazed that they had the opportunity to update this relic of a building and this is what was chosen. In describing it to my daughter I told her it looked just like the flocked wallpaper that was in the hallway of an apartment we lived in back in surprise! 1972!
I assume that they are not taking out the old tufted Naugahyde fronted bar or conversation pit, either. Too bad the fire didn't spread just a little more.

What I Promised

I finally downloaded new photos so here are the sharper pics of the ladies' room that I was so enthralled with a month ago. I have to say, time has not blunted my fascination with this place. There were about 30 attendees at the week long meeting that took place in this place, which I found out was built in 1972. The funny thing about this place was everytime we had a break women would go inside and for just a second one or two women would lose stride and blink really hard as if they had just seen it for the first time. It caught you by surprise over and over.

Better Late than Never

Well, I've been sort of busy. Doing super secret government business. Seriously. I had to take an oath, honest to gosh, never to reveal, blah blah blah.
But anyway, I re-read my last post and thought to myself I should have not belabored my gloom and focused more on the recent trip I took to California. First,I went to see my Sissy who has been staying in Oceanside. We HAD A BALL. We attended a farmers market and street fair one day, bought all kinds of great Mediterranean food and coconut pancakes which were the bomb. And we ate at various taquerias I don't know how many times. Let me just say the carnitas were fabulous. We visited my nephew who has this amazing pergola going on at his house just outside his bedroom. Lots of incredible exotic plants, hanging baskets and the like. And he is very fussy about how the colors all go together. He and my sister frequent the nurseries in the area a lot in his quest for the perfect plants.
And we went to the beach. Several times. What a world away from the cold and grayness I had been experiencing. And we shopped. We went to Encinitas one day and went to several of the most amazing places. At Gardenology we by chance met Deirdra Doan, a doll artist who has a great blog: http://www.deirdradoan.blogspot.com/
I hated to leave but from there I went to visit my daughter and her family in the Bay area. I had a layover in Los Angeles where I poked around in a couple of bookstores and was aghast to discover that the town I live in right now is written about in "Don't Go There!" by Peter Greenberg. I shouldn't really say I was aghast because it really comes as no surpise. My town STINKS! And that's just the beginning of why it is listed along with such other dubious places as Bhopal, India and Chernobyl. Lovely. Just lovely.
Had a blast at my daughter's, too. I hadn't been to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in years and we went one night and it is just wonderful. My granddaughter is quite the expert about all things "fishy". Wouldn't surprise me a bit if she becomes a marine biologist someday.
Got back home just in time to greet The Bustmeister as he got out of the kitty hospital. Poor thing, he had to have his left eye removed. He has been blind in that eye ever since I got him but lately I could tell that it was looking different and I wondered if he was in pain. He was just a perfect little patient while recovering. He didn't scratch at his stitches or anything. He seems to feel so much better and insists on a lot of "play time" with us.
More later. I've been experimenting with Acey brand Apoxie Sculpt I bought in San Jose. The jury is still out on this stuff. See a related article on it in Spring 2009issue of Belle Armoire Jewelry. Let me just say this if you have been thinking about trying this out. Buy the white kind if you are going try to replicate what you see in the magazine.